On the Friendship Express, Twilight, Starlight, Tiger Lily, Spike, and baby Snowdrop are going to the Crystal Empire for a visit. Twilight is very excited to see her brother and sister in law, but is mostly excited to see her niece, baby Flurry Heart.
"I hope Shining Armor and Princess Cadance don't think it's too soon for me to come back to the Crystal Empire for a visit. But I just know Flurry Heart's grown so much already. I wonder if I'll even recognize her," Twilight says, excitedly.
"She's the only baby they have, Twilight. I think it'll be pretty easy to figure out who she is," Starlight remarks.
Twilight shows of a frown and grunts in response.
Then Starlight calmly apologizes and says, "Sorry. I know you want to visit your niece as much as possible, and I'm excited to see Sunburst again. I just don't wanna fall behind on my friendship lessons back home."
"Starlight, your work in Ponyville isn't going anywhere. Besides, I think we all know you can learn about friendship anywhere," Twilight says with a smile.
She then looks at Tiger Lily and says, "That also go for Tiger Lily as well."
"Yeah. We've been doing so well with our lessons, and it seems we've done a lot of magic too," Tiger Lily agrees as she feed little Snowdrop.
Then Tiger Lily asks, "Do you think Flurry Heart will like Snowdrop?"
"I think Flurry and Snowdrop will become good friends, Right, Spike?" Twilight replies as she turns to the otherside of the car to see Spike.
The three mares look to see Spike reading a big newspaper, but is wearing large sunglasses, a coat, and a fedora.
Then Spike says in a deep voice, "Spike? Who's Spike?
The three mare are confused as to why Spike is wearing all this stuff, and trying not to get recognized.
Starlight asks, "Uh, you're Spike, Spike. And why are you dressed like that?
Spike puts the newspaper down with a groan, and says, "Guys, you're blowing my cover!
"How'd you even know it was me?" Spike asks as he walks towards the mares and the baby dragon, holding a bag.
"Because you're you... in a coat, hat and glasses," Starlight remarks.
Tiger Lily giggles and adds, "Also, we're the only ones on the train."
Spike looks around to see that Starlight is right, nopony is on the train by them.
"Right," Spike sheepishly answers."
Then Twilight asks, "Spike, why do you need a disguise?"
"Last time we came to the Crystal Empire, there was a lot goin' on with the new baby and the Crystalling, but I still got mobbed in the street," Spike answers.
"I wouldn't say mobbed," Spike remarks.
"And this is just a family visit. I wouldn't want the presence of Spike the Brave and Glorious to turn it into some kind of circus." Spike says, and yet sounding proud of his title.
The girls shows smiles on their faces, then they start laughing a baby begins to giggle as she moves her arms and legs around.
"We get it. The Crystal Ponies adore you," Starlight clarifies it.
"He did save the Empire. Twice. But still, I don't think your presence will turn our visit into a circus," Twilight replies, as Spike digs through his bag.
"Not if I find the right disguise, it won't," Spike clarifies.
Twilight and the others look at Spike to see something strange on his head. Spike is now wearing a large orange curly wig on his head. The three mares look at eachother and Spike with smiles on their faces Little Snowdrops begins laughing at Spike's funny wig, and tries to touch it. They think that disguise is not going to work.
After making their stop, and getting off of the train, the mares, and young dragon notice something very off.
Starlight Glimmer skeptically says, Uh, disguise or not, Spike, I don't think you need to worry about being mobbed. Nopony's here."
The group can see that the train station is distorted, and a tumbleweed has rolled by. They wonder where everypony are.
"It's like a ghost town," Spike says, looking around the station.
Then Twilight Sparkle worriedly says, "I've got a bad feeling about this."
"We should go look around and see if somepony's there," Tiger Lily suggests.
"Good idea," Starlight agrees.
The four friends begins to walk off the station and are heading to the empire. Tiger Lily strolls Snowdrop in a stroller. When they reach the empire, they all see that the place is distorted, not a pony in sight.
"Yeah, this is weird," Starlight replies, feeling uncomfortable.
"Where is everypony?" Tiger Lily asks.
"Guess I don't need the disguise then," Spike says as he takes the clothes off.
"Guess not," Tiger Lily replies.
Just as Spike takes his disguise off, all the crystal ponies from the empire runs toward Spike and surround him. They all are very happy, and are talking among Spike.
One of the crystal mares cheers, "It's Spike the Brave and Glorious!"
"He comes to save us yet again," Another crystal mare happily replies.
With that, the crystal ponies chants Spike's name and begin to throw Spike in the air, and carrying him in the process. Spike and the others have no idea what is going on, and would like an answer.
"Save you from what?" Spike asks.
"Yeah. What's going on?" Starlight adds.
Then Twilight asks, "Why was everypony hiding?"
Two of the crystal mare look at the three mare with the baby female dragon with worried looks.
The purple crystal mae ays, "Oh, it sure looks like Princess Twilight and her pupils."
"But how can we be sure?" The tan one says.
Then the purple mare panicky says, "We can't! Either one of them could be the... you know!"
The tan gone constantly gasps as she says, "What if this... isn't... the real Spike?!"
Getting completely impatient, Tiger Lily angrily shouts with a loud voice while magic sparks comes out of her horn, "But what is it?!"
Hearing the loud voice make everypony stop to cover their ears, and accidently drop Spike in the process. Tiger Lily looks at the ponies who are staring at her, and her cheeks are becoming red.
She then shyly says, "Sorry."
The crystal ponies look at each other and wonder which one should answer.
"Maybe you should talk to the princess for an explanation," One of the orange crystal stallions answer.
Everypony else nod their heads in response, then run back to their homes, The girls and Spike are confused about all this.
Twilight says, making it official, "Okay. Something strange is going on here."
"And whatever it is has the crystal ponies seem spooked," Tiger Lily replies.
"You think," Spike replies, as he rubs his head from the fall.
Thn Starlight asks, "Maybe Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, and Sunburst will know what's going on?"
Agreeing to the idea, Twilight and the others decide to go to the Crystal Palace to see if Princess Cadence and the others may know anything about the fearful ponies.
But are confronted by ne of the guards saying, "Who goes there?"
"Um, you don't recognize the Princess of Friendship?" Starlight asks looking being a little sarcastic about it.
One of the guards look at them as he says, "Of course we recognize her."
"But that doesn't mean it's really her," The other one relies.
This make the girls even more confused.
Tiger Lily turns to Starlight and whispers, "I'm getting a feeling this isn't some kind of prank."
"I agree," Starlight firmly replies.
"It's okay, guys. They're with me. And any friend of Spike the Brave and Glorious is a friend of the Crystal Empire, am I right?" Spike says sounding confident and walking towards the guard.
Buy Tiger Lily nervously says, "Um Spike, I don't think they agree with you."
Spike becomes confused, and look to see the tow guards looking at him funny, and begint to inspect him.
The first guards says, "Huh. It does look like him."
Well, it would, wouldn't it? I'm sorry, but we'll need to see some proof of identification," The other guard says, firmly looking at Spike.
Which is making Spike a little a little sad.
"Uh, I'm afraid we don't understand what is going on," Tiger Lily replies.
Starlight groans with an annoyed look, and asks, "Can somepony please tell us what is going on here?!"
Just then, they hear Cadence voice saying, "We'll take care of things from here."
Spike, and the girls are happy to see Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, and Sunburst with baby Flurry Heart in a stroller. However, they look a bit serious, except for the baby who is drinking her bottle.
"Oh, Cadance, thank goodness! What's going on?" Twilight asks, and yet gla to see her family.
"We can explain, Twily... if it really is you," Shining Armor calmly says with a stern look.
Princess Cadence walks to Twilight and, starts their phrase and dance, saying, "Sunshine, sunshine…"
Then Twilight starts doing the dance and the phrase along with Cadence, "...ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"
Then the two mares pull each other to a hug, and are glad to see each other again. Shining Armor smiles seeing the two mares are hugging each other.
"It's okay, everypony. It's her," Shining Armor informs the guards.
Everypony becomes relieve to hear that it is Princess Twilight, but still Twilight and the others want an explanation.
"Of course it's her! What's all this about?" Starlight asks walking to Sunburst.
"Yeah. Everypony in the empire acted like they're seen a ghost," Tiger Lily adds.
"A changeling's been spotted nearby," Sunburst answers with concern.
Twilight Sparkle eyes widen as she exclaims, "A changeling?!
"That's not good," Spike worriedly adds.
"No, it's not." Princess Cadence agrees.
Then she says, "After Queen Chrysalis took my place at our wedding and invaded Canterlot with her army of minions, we're not taking any chances."
"That does sound bad," Tiger Lily replies.
"It is bad. Changelings feed off of love. And ever since Flurry Heart's Crystalling, the Empire is filled with more love than anywhere in Equestria. It's possible they've come for the baby," Sunburst explains.
"That's why we posted the extra guards, and why we're…" Shining Armor explains.
Twilight Sparkle understands this, and finishes, "Checking everypony's identity."
Princess Cadance sighs and says, "I'm sorry for all of this."
"Flurry Heart's really been looking forward to seeing you," Princess Cadence adds showing a calm smile towards her daughter.
Twilight and the others walk over to Baby Flurry Heart. Flurry begin to coo when he sees her aunt and godmother.
Twilight smiles, and happily declares "Oh, she's gotten so big! Starlight, Tiger Lily, and I will do whatever we can to help protect her."
"To be honest, having you here is already a big relief," Princess Cadence says with a calm smile.
As Flurry is looking at the adults, she then notices someone inside of the baby buggy TigerLily has sheshe flies over to see what it is. When she sits herself down in the buggy, so ends up coming across baby Snowdrop. Snowdrop and Flurry Heart begin staring at each other as they are sitting in the buggy. Snowdrop then brings out some of her toys and start playing with Flurry. The two babies are starting to have fun playing toys, which is making the ponies and young dragon smile.
"Well look at that, they're friends already," Spike happily replies.
"Guess we don't need to worry about them getting along," Starlight replies.
Sometime later, Tiger Lily, Princess Cadence, Twilight, and Starlight are in the nursery with the two babies. They are simply sitting down as they see the two babies playing with toys and other stuffed animals. They are also going to guard them.
Princess Cadence giggles, and says, "The babies are sure having a lot of fun."
"I agree. They're both getting along so well," Tiger Lily happily replies.
They see the two babies having fun, and ends up falling on their back. Then the two begin laughing, which cause the mares to laugh.
Tiger Lily then remember something, so she turn to Princess Cadence and asks, "Princess Cadence, do you anything about crystal roses?"
"Yes. I do. Crystal flowers are well known around here, and the ponies love them. It's actually traditional for the crystal ponies to give the crystal flowers somepony they love very much," Princess Cadence explains.
Tiger Lily blushes after hearing that, while Twilight and Starlight start giggling.
Then Starlight says, "I think it shows that somepony is very fond of you."
"Why you say that?" Princess Cadence asks.
"Tiger Lily has a secret admirer have been giving her crystal flowers, especially roses, along with other kind of gifts. Recently all the gifts have been coming from the Crystal Empire," Twilight explains.
"I'm guessing that whoever is this secret admirer must live in the empire somewhere," Princess Cadence suspects.
"That's kind of what we got so far," Starlight replies.
Princess Cadence smiles and says, "Well whoever thi pony is, I hope you two will be very happy together."
"You think so?" Tiger Lily asks.
"I do," Princess Cadence replies with a calm smile.
Tiger Lily begins to smile, and wonder if her secret lover is around the empire.
Then she hears Starlight asks, "Do you think Spike will be alright?"
"I sure hope so. The last time we met changelings, Canterlot was attacked," Twilight worriedly says.
Then Tiger Lily calmly says, "You know, there is something off about all this. Why would one would appear now? And wouldn't you have seen more by now? Also if it had been spotted, then why didn't it attack."
"Those are good questions, but I wish we knew the answer," Princess Cadence reples.
"But it's best not to take any chances incase it does," Twilight replies.
Then Tiger Lily asks, "Do you know if it's a stallion or a mare?"
"I don't know. Most changelings except of their queen looks almost the same," Princess Cadence replies.
"Why are you asking these questions?" Starlight asks.
"I guess because I never met a changeling before, and I like to know what they are. I sometimes like knowing about other creatures," Tiger Lily answers.
"Make sense," Twilight replies.
Then Tiger Lily says, "Back to the pony who gave me the gifts, I think I have an idea who he is, but I only saw him once."
"What do you mean?" Princess Cadence asks.
Tiger Lily decides to tell the girls about him, and says, "Well… along time ago. When I was traveling around Equestria. I've… met someone who was in trouble…"
Tiger Lily mind flashes back to when she met the stallion. Tiger Lily is traveling across a large meadow, and is trying to find a place to stay for the night. Tiger Lily looks up the sky to see the dark cloud starting to roll in, meaning it's going to rain. She then starts to run as fast as she can to find a place to stay for the night. Luckily, she is able to find a cave, and run in.
In the cave, Tiger Lily sees that the cave is dark and nopony seems to be here. She then lights up her horn, and gather wood from the wagon during her travels. As she travel deep inside the cave, she notice that something or someone is in there. Tiger Lily slowly walks over to whatever it is, and is shocked to see that she is not alone.
She sees a strange stallion that is dark fur, and has holes on his legs. The horn is jagged, and the wings are transparent light blue. He also has sharp teeth from his mouth. Tiger Lily has never seen anypony like him before, and can see that he is sleeping. She wants to leave, but can tell something is wrong.
She slowly walks over to him, and asks, "Hello… are you alright?"
But the stallion isn't responding. Tiger Lily touches him, and feel that he is freezing, and his heavily breathing. She can tell that he needs help, so she decides to help him. Tiger Lily hurries and gather some blankets from the cart and puts it on the stallion. Then starts putting the fireplace together. When she's done, she starts the fire to warm him up. Tiger Lily then starts to cook some carrots and potatoes on the fireplace.
For the past few hours, Tiger Lily has been making sure he is warm from the blankets, and fire she also make sure she has eaten her dinner while keeping an eye on him. She puts a wash cloth of hot water on his forehead, and giving him TLC (Tender, Love, and Care). As Tiger Lily is laying in front of the fire with her guest, she begins to sing to him.
Tiger Lily:
I know there's someone
Somewhere
Someone
Who's sure to find me soon
After the rain goes
There are rainbows
I'll find my rainbow soon
As Tiger Lily is singing and lst in her thoughts, the sleeping patient s slowly opening his blue eyes, and seeing Tiger Lily. The stallion smiles and his cheeks is turning red. Then he falls back to sleep as he continues to hear Tiger Lily sings.
Tiger Lily:
Soon it won't be just pretend
Soon a happy ending
Love, can you hear me
If you're near me
Sing your song
Sure and strong
And soon
Tiger Lily then falls asleep after singing.
The next day, Tiger Lily wakes up from her long sleep, and see the rain has stop. However, she turns to see that the stallion she's been taking care of is not here anymore. In his place is a small bouquet of wildflowers from the meadow. Tiger lily hold the flowers, and wonder where he is. She wishes she can see him again, and what's more learn his name.
Flashes back to the nursery, Tiger Lily says, "Even though I never knew who he was, I always wonder where he is now, and hope that I'll see him again."
The three mares shows smiles on their faces and their eyes are getting watery.
"That is so sweet," Starlight says.
"I think it wonderful," Twilight adds.
"I guess, he not only fall in love with you, but he also enjoys your singing," Princess Cadence replies.
"I wonder why he left?" Straight asks.
"That I don't know, but… maybe he's in the empire somewhere. I wonder if I'll be able to see him," Tiger Lily says, with a smile.
"I'm sure you will," Starlight says.
The three mares do hope that someday Tiger Lily will meet the stallion again. What they don't know is that Tiger Lily is going to see him sooner than she thinks.